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Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Jeep Safari - A Drive on the Wild Side.

My morning dog walks have been coinciding with the daily jeep safari. I prefer not to meet them as they zoom quite fast through the forest and whip up a dust cloud that must negate any health benefits I gain from my morning stroll. I vary my timings but so do the jeeps, so we've encountered each other 3 times in the last 7 days. I'm a bit sorry for the customers on board. It can't be much fun being bumped over a rough road with the sun pelting down, eating the dirt of the jeep in front. I also feel that they are being a bit short changed. They might see a stork or a heron, a few cows and a goat or two, but I don't think I, a middle-aged Brit in a Marks and Spencer's floral dress, add to their experience of Turkey's wild side. The jeep companies have put terrapins and fish in our ponds to add a bit of interest to the trip but I think I can do better.

There is a shop on the main road to the airport that sells plaster statues. It's had a giraffe and an elephant on show for the last couple of years. Do you think I should investigate getting them up to our garden to lurk behind a pine tree to give the safari guys a thrill? When my daughter was little, I had to make her a paper maché dolphin head for a school play and everyone (very rudely) said it looked more like an ear-less donkey. I could find it in the store room and have it peaking out from a bush to add a frisson to the trip. At least it would provide a few more photo opportunities.

Hello:Oh yes, what fun to have plaster animals peeping out through the undergrowth for the delight of camera carrying tourists! And, how interestingly these faux animals could be coloured and patterned. Surely this would boost tourism no end as foreigners come in search of the 'dotty' red and white giraffe.

Yes, I think you should go for it... I wonder if we could persuade the cafe in Pamucak to provide some similar attractions. The jeeples scare the beach sparrows, let alone the wildlife in the wetlands which is normally a lot shyer.

. . you could probably pick up one of those life-sized stuffed camels that turn green after a couple of seasons for a few lira. There are regular accidents, incl a fatality last year, around Dalyan from these idiot drivers and their idiot passengers who drive around having water pistol fights.

About Me

In early 1982 I boarded a Turkish Kibris flight to Izmir - my destination was a 29 foot sloop in Bodrum's new marina. At 22, my belongings fitted into a worse for wear sailing holdall. In 2012 I made a similar journey from Heathrow to Bodrum. Thirty years have passed and Bodrum has changed. There are plenty of very good blogs detailing the ex-pat journey through modern Turkey. The aim of this one is to catch sight of past Turkey through my experience of re-settling in modern Bodrum.